It’s day 2 of Ramadhan 1431. Today’s Ramadhan recommendations are a few Qur’an apps and widgets that will get you started:

You can now get Mobile Holy Qur'an for iPad from zoosware

1. I use the free www.zoosware.comMobile Holy Quran app on my iPhone that lets me download sura by sura, and include recitations by either Sheikh Ghamdi or Sheikh Husairy, or neither. This app is built specifically for the smaller mobile screen, allowing space for each ayat only. Recitation is synced with each ayat as it appears and you can read the Yusuf Ali English translation as you go along. You can choose to repeat ayat by ayat with their controls. Being Malay, I like that it also offers Malay translation! It also has ‘Notes’ that allows you to add your own notes for each ayat.

Zoosware have apps for everything – iPhones, Android phones, iPads, Palm Webos, as well as for non-mobile PCs and Macs. You can choose to donate to the company. I’ve never used it but their iPad Quran app looks fantastic. Do click on the image to check it out for yourself.

2.Paid apps – There are a lot of other Quran apps available, and if you search ‘Quran’, the iPhone apps store comes up with:

a. Quran Reader by Batoul Apps – £1.79 (as far as I can see the interface is more elaborate than my free zoosware ap)

3. You can download the freeware Quran Cast Podcast Widget by Khaled Mohammad straight to your desktop/dashboard. I find it particularly useful as it’s handy if you want specific sura recitations and not the entire Qur’an. For some reason, though, the list of suras is reversed, so you have to scroll all the way down for Al-fateha. This is a podcast that you can subscribe to.

I like this Electronic Quran widget for Mac OS X Dashboard

4. A more complete widget for your dashboard is the freeware Electronic Quran by Mohammad Umairi. It offers an endless list of reciters and you can pause it as well. My only grouse about it is that its scroll doesn’t work and you have to click on the arrows to move up and down the lists.

Give some of them a try and stick with the ones that suit you best! Ramadhan is the month of the Holy Qur’an – read, listen, think and in sha’ Allah act accordingly. Thank you to all the developers for your generosity and work. Blessings of the good month from my family to yours!

يوم ١ في شهر رمضان

I got my (Tunisian) dates for Iftaar!

I have just realised that I have different sets of fajr, imsaak, iftaar and prayer times for Derby for Ramadhan 1431. The London Central Mosque website is quite possibly in meltdown due to high traffic and I haven’t been able to access it this evening. Will try ringing the nearest mosque here to get prayer times for Ramadhan. Makes me ask myself why I didn’t bag the prayer times I was reading at PAK Foods last week! I don’t remember it being quite this difficult last year. Must remember to start coordinating these things MUCH sooner for next Ramadhan in sha’ Allah!

Last year I had the privilege of interviewing Radio Ramadhan Glasgow about their broadcast for Ramadhan and I’m very happy to see that Radio Ramadhan is still on air. Radio Ramadhan covers a few major cities around the country so check out their website for all details. I could get to their Edinburgh, Glasgow and Luton pages but not the Birmingham one. Since Birmingham is the nearest city to me I’ll keep on trying! Would be nice to hear some ramadhan radio at 2am! I also had the privilege of speaking with the Islamic Relief people last Ramadhan about their Ramadhan campaigns and it’s on again this year. Islamic Relief was recently named runner-up at the The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’ charity finance award. Islamic Relief do very good work and they’re an incredibly well-run organisation. Do help with their Ramadhan campaign any way you can.

It’s been many years since I’ve spent Ramadhan with family. This year is the same. My parents are at Umrah and may Allah keep them well. My mother, who is the most stubborn woman on earth, was left dehydrated and sick when they were at Ramadhan Umrah last year but insists that this year she’ll be fine “except for her dodgy knee”. Well mum and dad, God keep you both well and Ramadhan Kareem!

In a week we welcome the holy month of Ramadhan, God Willing. Following the practice of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) most Muslims break our fast with dates and water. For now, a simple reminder – Don’t break your fast with Israeli dates. For more information, visit the Check the Label website. The month of Ramadhan is also the good month when the first verses of the Holy Qur’an were revealed to the Prophet (pbuh). Take this opportunity, if you can, to read as much of the Qur’an . It is difficult to complete the reading of the book in a month, but as they say – practice makes perfect. I’m looking forward to Ramadhan. May Allah bless you and family in the coming good month! Ramadhan Kareem!

Is it just me, or is there a huge fervour, greatly increased and enhanced excitement in anticipation of Ramadhan this year, or is it just that people have more platforms and avenues to express themselves as individuals more than ever now? Everyday now for the past couple of weeks or so, I get numerous tweets about preparing for Ramadhan, about new Muslims encountering Ramadhan for the first time, about how people can’t wait for Ramadhan etc. Then there are the tweets that link to sites, writing about new applications and services designed to help Muslims during Ramadhan (most recently the Ramadhan Alert), youtubing about the merits of Ramadhan, podcasting about taraweeh prayers, exhibiting fancy clothes to look forward to end of Ramadhan, and that’s just what’s coming through on tweeter!

If you’re on facebook you probably get daily status updates calling out to Ramadhan, comments and “likes” in response to Ramadhan-related news and thoughts, and more.

Then there are the emails. My parents updating me about their Ramadhan umrah trip (in sha Allah!), the multitude of emails from various software companies pushing “Islamic” software, online stores like Amazon recommending me books I might like for the coming month etc.

All these have made me, the Muslim living in the UK and away from family and any sizeable Muslim community, feel rather comforted. For the past few years I’ve had to encounter Ramadhan alone for the most part. Fasting, eating, praying and celebrating Eid alone. It’s never bothered me as the good month was always enough to keep me going. This year, though, I feel like I have the entire online community of tweeters, emailers, bloggers, facebookers etc to experience and celebrate Ramadhan with me, and already I feel rather buoyed up!

In sha Allah the good month arrives in a few days and in anticipation of that arrival, let me wish the entire online ummah RAMADHAN KAREEM!